Day 22
Today's Scripture
John 16:1-33
Helpful or Heartless Toward Others? “It is Christ…who also makes intercession for us…the Spirit. makes intercession for the saints.” Romans 8:34, 27
Jesus was not rebuking the disciples in this passage. Their faith was real, but it was disordered, unfocused, and not at work in the important realities of life. The disciples were scattered to their own concerns and they had interests apart from Jesus Christ. After we have the perfect relationship with God, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our faith must be exercised in the realities of everyday life. We will be scattered, not into service but into the emptiness of our lives where we will see ruin and barrenness, to know what internal death to God’s blessings means. Are we prepared for this? It is certainly not of our own choosing, but God engineers our circumstances to take us there. Until we have been through that experience, our faith is sustained only by feelings and by blessings. But once we get there, no matter where God may place us or what inner emptiness we experience, we can praise God that all is well. That is what is meant by faith being exercised in the realities of life.
“You…will leave Me alone.” Have we been scattered and have we left Jesus alone by not seeing His providential care for us? Do we not see God at work in our circumstances? Dark times are allowed and come to us through the sovereignty of God. Are we prepared to let God do what He wants with us? Are we prepared to be separated from the outward, evident blessings of God? Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. Our faith is real, but it is not yet permanent. And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in His blessings, instead of in God Himself. The sense of God’s blessings is fundamental.
“Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Unyielding spiritual fortitude is what we need.
Today's Prayer
Lord, direct our paths today and purge us of the unfocused and disordered faith we are presently demonstrating in our relationship with You. Reveal where we’re focused on our personal interests and concerns apart from You. Make us ready and willing in the moment to relate to Your sacrifice and Cross. Help us to be thankful regardless of the circumstances. Keep us as we press through the hard times and develop our value of You as Lord. Establish in us an unyielding spiritual fortitude that glorifies You.
Day 23
Today's Scripture
Matthew 26:36-46
His Agony and Our Access “Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples…’Stay here and watch with Me!” Matthew 26:36, 38
We can never fully comprehend Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, but at least we don’t have to misunderstand it. It is the agony of God and man in one Person, coming face-to-face with sin. We cannot learn about Gethsemane through personal experience. Gethsemane and Calvary represent something totally unique—they are the gateway into life for us. It was not death on the cross that Jesus agonized over in Gethsemane. In fact, He stated very emphatically that He came with the purpose of dying. His concern here was that He might not get through this struggle as the Son of Man. He was confident of getting through it as the Son of God—Satan could not touch Him there. But Satan’s assault was that our Lord would come through for us on His own solely as the Son of Man. If Jesus had done that, He could not have been our Savior. (See Hebrews 9:11-15) Read the record of His agony in Gethsemane in light of His earlier wilderness temptation—”the devil…departed from Him until an opportune time.” (Luke 4:13) In Gethsemane, Satan came back and was overthrown again. Satan’s final assault against our Lord as the Son of Man was in Gethsemane.
The agony in Gethsemane was the agony of the Son of God in fulfilling His destiny as the Savior of the world. The veil is pulled back here to reveal all that it cost Him to make it possible for us to become sons of God. His agony was the basis for the simplicity of our salvation. The Cross of Christ was a triumph for the Son of Man. It was not only a sign that our Lord had triumphed, but that He had triumphed to save the human race. Because of what the Son of Man went through, every human being has been provided with a way of accessing the very presence of God.
Today's Prayer
Lord, develop our passion for Your Cross so that we’re taking advantage of the Life and sonship it reveals, as You work in us. Reveal the power of Your Cross to us and help us overthrow every assault Satan has purposed. Finish Your work of salvation in us as Your sons and help us appreciate the way You’ve provided for us in Your presence.
Day 24
Today's Scripture
II Corinthians 5:16-21
The Collision of God and Sin “…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” 1 Peter 2:24
The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom with the Cross of Christ. It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very found-
ations of hell. There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross. He made it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God. He made redemption the foundation of human life; that is, He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God.
The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8) The incarnation of Christ would have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating “God was manifested in the flesh” from “He made Him. . . to be sin for us.” (1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21) The purpose of the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.
The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of God, and it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.
The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged in a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.
Today's Prayer
Lord, we can’t thank You enough for the right-standing that Your righteous sacrifice has afforded us. You made a way for us to have fellowship with You now, in every passing moment. Thank you for revealing Your nature from Your Cross and inviting us to enter into oneness with You. Your love is past finding out!
Day 25
Today's Scripture
Mark 9:1-12
Why We Lack Understanding “He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” Mark 9:9
As the disciples were commanded, you should also say nothing until the Son of Man has risen in you—until the life of the risen Christ so dominates you that you truly understand what He taught while here on earth. When you grow and develop the right condition inwardly, the words Jesus spoke become so clear that you are amazed you did not grasp them before. In fact, you were not able to understand them before because you had not yet developed the proper spiritual condition to deal with them.
Our Lord doesn’t hide these things from us, but we are not prepared to receive them until we are in the right condition in our spiritual life. Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12) We must have a oneness with His risen life before we are prepared to bear any particular truth from Him. Do we really know anything about the indwelling of the risen life of Jesus? The evidence that we do is that His Word is becoming understandable to us. God cannot reveal anything to us if we don’t have His Spirit. And our own unyielding and headstrong opinions will effectively prevent God from reveal-
ing anything to us. But our insensible thinking will end immediately once His resurrection life has its way with us.
“Tell no one.” But so many people do tell what they saw on the Mount of Transfiguration—their mountain top experience. They have seen a vision and they testify to it, but there is no connection between what they say and how they live. Their lives don’t add up because the Son of Man has not yet risen in them. How long will it be before His resurrection life is formed and evident in you and in me?
Today's Prayer
Lord, we want to be like You. We only want to say what we hear You say, as the risen Savior, in us. Help us to grow in You and give You complete access to our lives. Help us to step into our identities as true sons. Make us one with Your risen Life. Help us to put our unyielding and headstrong opinions under our feet and follow only You. Rise in us and live through us, is our prayer.
Day 26
Today's Scripture
Luke 24:13-32
His Resurrection Destiny “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” Luke 24:26
Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life. His resurrection means that He has the power to convey His life to me. When I was born again, I received the very life of the risen Lord from Jesus Himself.
Christ’s resurrection destiny—His foreordained purpose— was to bring “many sons to glory.” (Hebrews 2:10) The fulfillment of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We never have exactly the same relationship to God that the Son of God has, but we are brought by the Son into sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life—a life He had never lived before He was God Incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before. And what His resurrection means for us is that we are raised to His risen life, not our old life. One day we will have a body like His glorious body, but we can know here and now the power and effectiveness of His resurrection and can “walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4) Paul’s determined purpose was to “know Him and the power of His resurrection.” (Philippians 3:10)
Jesus prayed, “. as You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.” (John 17:2) The term Holy Spirit is actually another name for the experience of eternal life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the deity of God who continues to apply the power of the atonement by the Cross of Christ to our lives. Thank God for the glorious and majestic truth that His Spirit can work the very nature of Jesus into us if we will only obey Him.
Today's Prayer
Lord, establish Your Life and finish Your work of sonship in us. Help us to realize our need for connection with the mature members of Your body; to surrender to the correction, rebuke, and reproof of Your Spirit, and to receive the admoni-
tion of the guardians, tutors, and ministers You’ve given us as gifts. Fulfill Your destiny by making us sons and daughters for Your glory.